Commentary - Isaiah 37:21-35

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we have God's formal reply to the prayer of Hezekiah, and by extension, His formal reply to the blasphemies of Sennacherib. The scene is a cosmic courtroom. Hezekiah, having done all he could humanly do, threw himself and his kingdom entirely upon the mercy and honor of God. Now God, through His prophet Isaiah, delivers the verdict. The speech is a masterpiece of divine irony and righteous indignation. God first addresses Sennacherib directly, quoting his arrogant boasts back to him before revealing the true source of all his power. The Lord declares that the Assyrian king was nothing more than a tool, an axe in the hand of the sovereign God, used to accomplish God's purposes. Having been used, he will now be discarded and humiliated. The prophecy concludes with a tender promise to Hezekiah and the faithful remnant in Jerusalem, assuring them not only of immediate deliverance but of future restoration and fruitfulness, all accomplished by the unstoppable zeal of God Himself.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This section is the climax of the historical crisis involving the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib. Chapters 36 and 37 function as a narrative hinge in the book of Isaiah. The first half of the book (chapters 1-35) is filled with prophecies of judgment against Israel, Judah, and the surrounding nations, with Assyria often depicted as God's instrument of that judgment. But here, the instrument gets too proud, and God judges the judge. This event serves as a historical object lesson for all the theology Isaiah has been preaching. It demonstrates God's absolute sovereignty over world empires, His fierce protectiveness of His own honor, and His covenant faithfulness to the house of David. The deliverance of Jerusalem prefigures the greater deliverance that will come through the Messiah, the ultimate Son of David, who will save His people from their ultimate enemy.

Key Issues

Commentary

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,

The first thing to notice is the causal link. God's answer comes because Hezekiah prayed. Prayer is not a religious exercise to make us feel better; it is an appointed means by which the sovereign God accomplishes His purposes in the world. God had already determined to save Jerusalem, but He had also determined that He would do it in response to the prayers of His people. Hezekiah laid the blasphemous letter before the Lord, and the Lord answered the letter.

22 this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him: “She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!

God's response begins not with a roar of thunder, but with a picture of utter contempt. Zion is personified as a young woman, a virgin. She is not terrified; she is not impressed. She despises the bully and mocks him. As Sennacherib is forced into his ignominious retreat, she shakes her head at his back. This is the posture of faith. The world sees a helpless city facing an invincible army. God sees a virgin daughter, secure in her Father's house, laughing at the impotent rage of a fool.

23 Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you heightened your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!

Now God gets to the heart of the indictment. Sennacherib thought he was dealing with a petty hill-country king. God informs him that his quarrel was with someone else entirely. Every sin has a trajectory, and the ultimate target is always God Himself. The pride, the loud voice, the haughty eyes, were not directed at Hezekiah, but against the Holy One of Israel. This is the great sin of mankind, to set ourselves up against our Creator.

24-25 Through your servants you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.’

Here, God quotes Sennacherib's press release back to him. This is the speech of autonomous, technological man. Look what I have done. My chariots. I came up. I cut down. I will go. I dug. I dried up. He boasts of conquering not just men, but nature itself. He can ascend the highest mountains and strip them bare. He can provide his own water in the desert and eliminate the natural defenses of other nations. This is the spirit of Babel, the spirit of secular humanism that believes man is the measure of all things.

26-27 Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From days of old I formed it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps. So their inhabitants were short of power; They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the plant of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the rooftops is scorched before it rises.

This is one of the most breathtaking declarations of divine sovereignty in all of Scripture. God asks a rhetorical question: "Have you not heard?" Of course he hadn't heard. He wasn't listening. God pulls back the curtain of history and reveals the script. Sennacherib's entire career, all his conquests, were planned by God "from days of old." The Assyrian thought he was a force of nature, but he was merely a tool, an axe swung by the divine woodcutter. The nations he conquered were weak and helpless because God had made them so, for this very purpose. Their powerlessness was part of God's eternal decree.

28-29 But I know your sitting down And your going out and your coming in And your raging against Me. Because of your raging against Me And because your presumptuousness has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

God's knowledge is exhaustive. He knows Sennacherib's public life ("going out and coming in") and his private life ("sitting down"). Most importantly, He knows the state of his heart, his "raging against Me." Because of this proud rage, the punishment is one of utter humiliation. The great emperor who treated conquered peoples like cattle will now be treated like a wild beast. God will put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his mouth and lead him away. The conqueror is now the captive, led on a leash by the God he blasphemed.

30 Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

The sign is not for the pagan king, but for Hezekiah ("for you"). It is a sign of grace and restoration. The Assyrian invasion had disrupted the agricultural cycle. God promises a supernatural provision for two years, a kind of extended Sabbath for the land. After this period of rest and recovery, normal life will resume. This is a promise that God will not only deliver His people from their enemies, but He will also provide for them and restore their prosperity.

31-32 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.

This is a beautiful picture of the church. The remnant that survives the trial will not just cling to life; they will thrive. They will be stable, taking "root downward," and productive, bearing "fruit upward." This is what God does with His people. And what is the engine of this great salvation and restoration? It is not their own strength or merit. It is the "zeal of Yahweh of hosts." God's passionate, fiery, unstoppable commitment to His own glory and the good of His people is the ultimate guarantee of our salvation.

33-34 Therefore, thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh.

Here is the specific, concrete, falsifiable prophecy. God makes it plain. The siege will not even begin. Not one arrow will fly over the walls. The army will not approach with shields. The feared Assyrian siege ramp will not be built. The enemy will simply be turned around and sent home. God's word slams the door shut on Sennacherib's ambitions.

35 ‘Indeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’

And why? What are the grounds for this mighty deliverance? God gives two reasons, and they are the foundation of our hope. First, "for My own sake." God's reputation, His name, His glory, is at stake. He will not allow the pagans to conclude that He is just another tribal deity who could not protect His people. Second, "for My servant David's sake." This is the covenant. God made an unconditional promise to David, a promise that would find its ultimate fulfillment in the Son of David, Jesus Christ. God saves Jerusalem here to preserve the line through which the Messiah would come. He defends His city, the Church, today for the same two reasons: for the glory of His own name, and for the sake of His Son, Jesus.

Application

This passage is a tonic for the fearful heart. We live in a world full of loud, arrogant, and seemingly powerful Sennacheribs who blaspheme God and threaten His people. This story teaches us how to respond. First, we are to pray. Like Hezekiah, we must take the threats and blasphemies of the world and spread them out before the Lord. Our first resort must be to the throne of grace.

Second, we must learn to see the world from God's perspective. The world's great powers are nothing more than tools in His hand, accomplishing His purposes, whether they know it or not. Their proud boasts are ridiculous in the ears of heaven. Our response should not be fear, but the confident contempt of the virgin daughter of Zion. We can shake our heads at their retreating backs because we know how the story ends.

Finally, our ultimate security rests not in our own strength, but in the character and promises of God. He will save us for His own name's sake, and for the sake of His Son, Jesus, the greater David. The same zeal of the Lord of hosts that delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians is the zeal that sent Christ to the cross and raised Him from the dead. That zeal is now at work on our behalf, causing us to take root downward and bear fruit upward, until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.